Commercial lease vs residential lease?

[brian]

I'm currently looking to set up local offices, but as I live in a small town, there is no suitable commercial property to lease in my local area.

However, the possibility of renting a residential property in the towns business district has been raised as a possibility, with a change of use to offices being applied for after. I've already spoken to local planning, and they have no immediate objections to a change of use from residential to offices because of the location.

The question is, can a business rent on a normal residential lease - or must a business always rent using a commercial lease?

[JustinN]

A residential lease will usually specify the permitted use as being residential. However, as commercial rents are normally higher, the landlord is quite likely to be happy to rent for commercial use, but may want reassuring that, when the commercial use ends, he can easily revert to residential use for planning purposes if he wants

The first step, therefore, is to speak to the prospective landlord

[brian]

It's more the case of simply asking if it's legal to have a business operate on a residential lease, presuming any relevant disallow of business use in the contract are omitted.

The landlord is annoyed because he's having to spend money on getting a new commercial lease agreement drawn up, and I'm annoyed because it causing delays with moving in.

If he stuck with the residential lease, I could be in tomorrow, which would suit us both fine - hence asking if there is any legal need for a commercial lease when a business leases a property.

Either way, the rent will be no different.

[JustinN]

If the lease permits commercial use, then I don't see a problem; you'd need to check that there are no other lease provisions that are inappropriate, and there is, of course, the planning issue

[brian]

Okay, many thanks for the reply, Justin.